As part of a U.S. State Department program, groups on the arsenal worked for months to quickly customize two new UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for the Federal Police of Mexico. In a ceremony this afternoon, Army Col. Thomas Todd III handed over the keys and logbooks to William Brownfield, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

"It will make a difference, no doubt about it," said Todd, Utility Helicopters Project Manager for the Army's Program Executive Office-Aviation.

Brownfield knows the aircraft are effective. He said these Black Hawks are the last of six delivered during the past couple of years as part of the 2008 "Merida Initiative," a $1.6 billion security agreement forged with Mexico that recognizes the shared responsibilities of the governments in countering drug violence.

Mexico's local and state police don't have the resources to fight the wealthy and well-equipped drug cartels, Brownfield said. The federal police were a weak link, too, when the Merida Initiative programs began; he said that even people in Mexico thought they were more part of the problem than the solution.

Mexico's federal police, along with prosecutors and others, have received training and other support from the United States. The police, especially, needed equipment to match that of the drug traffickers, who are organized, agile and essentially paramilitary, he said.

"What they required, obviously, was the ability to deploy, and deploy very quickly," Brownfield said, sitting in the Black Hawk. "That's where these puppies come into play."

He said that, from 2005-08, Mexico's federal police took down one senior drug cartel leader. From 2008-11, since the partnership with the U.S., Mexican police have been able to bring down 34 or 35.

Brownfield manages all the U.S. State Department's global counter-drug, law enforcement programs, and said Mexico's is one of the top three. The government and people there are being battered, he said, and thousands have died from drug violence and organized crime. Juarez, which shares the border with El Paso, Texas, is today the most dangerous city on the planet, he said.

So we're helping Mexico, but not just because we're wonderful people, Brownfield said. "We are doing it because better security and better law enforcement in Mexico is good for the United States of America." He said it means fewer drugs on our streets, fewer children poisoned by addiction and fewer police dedicating their time and lives fighting drug crime.

When the Merida Initiative was signed, it provided for six helicopters. But as usual, Brownfield said, details about what they would be and how they would be configured quickly bogged down in complexity. The final Memorandums of Understanding, complete with Mexico's requirements, were signed only 17 months ago. Everyone, he said, thought it would take a decade to get the helicopters put together and delivered.

Brownfield told the arsenal team that he never worried, for three reasons: He knew they had a good private-sector partner in Sikorsky; knew that the Army was cooperating by delaying some deliveries of their own Black Hawks; and knew that, ultimately, the helicopters would be in the hands of Redstone Arsenal.

Here, the Army's UH-60M Project Office; the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and its Prototype Integration Facility; the Aviation Engineering Directorate and Redstone Test Center were all involved in outfitting the aircraft. Among many modifications, these UH-60Ms got special searchlights, extended-range search and interdiction capability, hoists and personnel recovery systems, satellite communications and other high-tech gear, and a custom dark-blue paint job.

Brownfield said the arsenal is the only place this work could have been done as well or as quickly, and he engaged in a bit of hyperbole to make his point:

"Ladies and gentleman, it is the finest such facility in the state of Alabama, in the United States of America, on planet Earth and - I do not know if we will find intelligent life outside of Earth in the years ahead, but if we do, I say with all confidence, Redstone will be better than any facility they have anywhere in the galaxy," he said above rising applause. "I thank you all. You are the reason we're having this ceremony today, and not in the year 2022."